Consumer Complaint Detail

FORD / ESCAPE HYBRID / 2005

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 005079545 Incident Date: Mar, 06 2005
Consumer's City: Consumer's State: CA
Vehicle Transmission Type: Manufacturers Name: Ford Motor Company
Model Name: ESCAPE HYBRID Model Year: 2005
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Air bags:frontal:sensor/control module
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: Date added to File: May, 23 2021
Date Complaint Received: Sep, 19 2006 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: Nov, 21 2004
Was Original Owner: No Anti-lock Brakes: No
Number of Cylinders: 0 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: I own a 2005 ford escape hybrid. when i bought it (brand new) i noticed an air bag issue where during driving, if the passenger made a slight sitting adjustment, the airbag would deactivate. sometimes it would not reactivate, or take a long time (5, 10 minutes). i told ford about it, and they replaced the airbags seat gel pad sensor. the symptom improved, but still happens. my fiance is 120lbs and she sits normally in her seat. if she makes a move to readjust (as one would on a road trip, or long drive) the airbag may still deactivate. initially it was frequent (75% of the time) however now it is 50/50 (since the replaced gel pad). however, it is troubling to know that when i am driving, sometimes my fiancee''s airbag is deactivated. we feel vulnerable that the safety items we purchased to protect us are not always there for us. i tried communicating with ford telling them it still persists, but they just don't "get it". i don't understand that when a passenger sits in the seat and the car knows it - how can the car deactivate that airbag while we are driving 60 mph? that seems like a design flaw - as obviously the passenger cannot exit the vehicle while the car is in motion, or even before the door opens. in my opinion, if the car senses a passenger when starting to move, then the airbag should stay on - at least until it stops moving (comes to a complete stop). so *motion* would be a check point and non-motion would be another point to *reevaluate* - but definitely not in the middle of freeway driving... i hope people appreciate the grandeur of the situation where the airbag purposely deactivates (from incorrect event programming) while driving. also, the below incident date is irrelevant. *jb